Jeffrey Geary Zak, more affectionately known as JJ to his friends, was born in Bayonne, New Jersey. After living in Jersey City for four years, he moved to the small town of Bernardsville, where he and his family have lived on their pseudo-farm ever since. He has three younger siblings, Julia, 18, Evan, 15, and Robin, 13, a back lab named Benedict (who is called benny or bu-du-skies), as well as a mother and father, Marcia and Jeff, who he assumes would prefer that he not reveal their exact age - lets just say its getting up there. He attended the Delbarton School in Morristown starting in seventh grade before being accepted to Princeton. And yes, as previously mentioned, he does live on what some might call a farm, complete with sheep, chickens and of course, horses. Up until his mid teens he rode regularly on his family’s horses Maggie, Lady and Tommy, the later being his favorite. Moreover, this probably explains his selection of topic as well as his reasons for revering the horse as a legendary creature just as he believed Degas did.
In addition to riding, JJ played hockey, squash and tennis in high school. Tennis is his favorite sport and one of his life long passions. It is somewhat of a family tradition, as all the members of his family played highly competitive tennis, with his father both playing and coaching professionally. He also likes to dabble in pretty much all other sports, including baseball, basketball, pingpong and especially golf (mostly in the self-constructed two hole course in his back yard with his brother, Evan, or Butz, as he is better known to his inner circle, who he dominates) as well the visual arts, like drawing and painting. In addition to tennis, art is another one of his lifelong passions, and it is something that he uses to express himself as well as to relax and escape. He participated in an extensive studio art program while in high school, culminating with year long studio classes in both his junior and senior year. He also attended the New Jersey Governor’s School for the Arts in the summer of 2003, a highly selective four week program of intensive study of all the visual arts. From his work in all of these endeavors he has amassed a relatively large portfolio, and is taking drawing classes over the summer as well as painting classes next year, as he plans (hopefully) to get a certificate in the visual arts in addition to majoring in economics.
His hobbies include relaxing, sleeping, chick flicks and date night with his girlfriend Allie, chilling with Stink, E-man and Evankovich Chimoffski in the ‘Ville, late nights at the nursing home with petey-pab, and spending time shopping, going to the movies and watching TV shows like Lost, House and Survivor: Exile Island with his mother (and also his best friend) Marcia. This summer he will be, among other things, teaching tennis at the MFC with his coach and resident tennis guru Stephano. Whenever possible, JJ and Stephano watch the Yankees, their favorite baseball team, together over the phone and scream at all the overpaid and useless recent Yankee acquisitions (see Johnson, A Rod, et al). His favorite tennis players are Roger Federer, Marat Safin and Rafael Nadal, with Nadal, according to him, being, “his idol” and his capri pants being, “the definition of cool” (qtd J.Zak, 2006). He also holds Tim Henman, or tiger tim, in a special place in his heart, as they play the similar style of a forehand-based, attacking style of game.
The two paintings on this page are self portraits of the author he painted while at Governor’s School and during his senior year at Delbarton. Although traditionally favoring to depict others, who he believes are far more dynamic and engaging subjects than himself, these are two of his favorite self portraits. And represented below is the progression of twelve watercolor paintings from his AP Portfolio concentration. The focus was “abstract realism” in watercolor, an attempt to portray what the artist sees realistically while using varying levels of abstraction (from ultra-realistic to fragmented) as a means to achieved this realism. His major artistic influences include Van Gogh, Homer, Picasso and most importantly Cluck Close, who is his biggest influence.
